What I See
by tvd-fan-klefan-lover
Summary: Faith wanted to say goodbye to Angel before heading back to Sunnydale but finds something she didn't expect in his drawings. Faith Angel friendship


**A/N: **I get really bored okay? Yep. R&R please

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The hotel was a nice enough place but Faith preferred to be outside. If she hadn't wanted to talk to Angel before she and Red took off she never would've been in this situation to begin with. It's not like she had planned to go through all his stuff when she went to his room. She'd just been looking for the vamp so she could say 'thanks' and 'seeya' since she was probably gonna die in Sunnyhell and then she was gonna get in the car and go. Quick, like pulling off a band aid.

Instead she was sitting on his bed, a pile of papers rested on her folded legs. She really shouldn't be going through this stuff. It wasn't like they were BFFs and she could get away with going through all his private drawings but there was one thing that the Dark Slayer though gave her the right.

Some of them prominently featured her. There were more piles in his little cabinet thing but the pile she had grabbed was all her if her first glance was anything to go by. As she slowly flicked through the pages some of the drawings triggered memories. That was when he pretended to be evil. That was when he tried to help her after she almost killed Xander. That was when she was in hospital, Faith guessed, looking at the myriad bruises and scrapes covering her sleeping face. That one was after she killed the demon sent after them and the blood had been a bit much to deal with.

As she worked her way through the pile she realised that a lot of the carefully drawn images weren't memories. She'd never smiled like that in front of him. She'd never really smiled in front of him at all. She was so engrossed in the images that when the bathroom door creaked open it took her a second to react, a second too long.

"Faith," Angel started as the woman froze, hands tightening on the pile of paper as the vampire padded across the room to her. Whatever he was going to say was cut off when he saw what she was holding and a sigh hit her sensitive eardrums.

"Nice drawings," she managed to snipe, focusing on not tearing the delicate pages in her grasp.

The bed sunk down next to her as he gently slipped the paper from her fingers, cold digits sliding against her own. She knew the silence meant he was deciding what to say, how to say it, and tried to wait as long as she could. Pictures of Buffy would've made sense, even pictures of his old vampire flings would have, but pictures of her didn't make any at all.

"I know you're probably confused," he said softly, looking over at her. "I draw what's on my mind, what I'm thinking about."

Faith scoffed, "You've been thinking about me, huh? Not sure whether to be flattered or not, fang-boy. Kinda creepy."

"I was worried about you," Angel berated softly. "I thought about you because I wanted to save you, remember? I wanted to help you, to save your soul, and right after you went to jail you plagued my thoughts. Wes and I both hoped you were strong enough to survive and in the end you were."

He had missed one of the drawings. It was the one he'd worked on the longest, something he had never planned to start but unable to finish until it seemed perfect. Now that he had really seen her smile it didn't seem right anymore in the image but as Faith's thin fingers almost tore the paper apart Angel realised that the imperfect smile was the problem.

"I never smiled like that," she said lowly, looking over at him with her doe eyes. "Memories I sort of understand. But I never smiled like that in front of you."

He gently pried the picture from her hands before enclosing one of hers in his, murmuring, "But it's how I wanted to see you. You were always hurting so much Faith and I just hoped that one day you'd smile."

He couldn't stop her from standing and leaving the room in a rush, dropping the sketch of her as she left. The vampire let out a heavy sigh, picking up the picture and tucking it back into the pile safely with the others. She was never going to be happy. That was just the fate of the abused girl from Boston.

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Bored and watching Angel *shakes head*

~Klefan-Lover


End file.
